Of the figure, 12 are awaiting their dates with the guillotine having exhausted all their appeal options up to the Supreme Court.

Some lawyers in the state in an attempt to cover grounds on the race for the award of Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), have lobbied for the convicts' cases on Pro bono basis.

Majority of those condemned in the state are held in Oke-Kura prison facility, it was furthered gathered.

However, the state Governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed, is yet to sign death warrants of the condemned convicts since inception of his administration.

His action, according to a top source, is at par with that of all his civilian predecessors in the state.

Confirming the statistics to National pilot, the Controller of Prisons, Kwara State Command, Ayokambi Adebiyi Olumide, said though there are currently 22 condemned convicts in Ilorin prison, he could not ascertain the number of Kwara condemned convicts in Kaduna Prison where they were transferred.

Olumide noted that congestion of the Kaduna facility was the reason the 22 convicts are still being kept in Ilorin prison.

He, however, said the state governor has not signed the warrant for the execution of the convicts.

According to him, “Presently, Kwara state prison command has 22 condemned convicts. I wouldn't know how many we have in Kaduna because after they have been condemned, we normally transfer them to Kaduna where we have facilities to keep condemned convicts.

“We can't take them to Kaduna because the place too is congested and that is why we are keeping them here. The Governor of the state, His Excellency, Alhaji Abdulfattah Ahmed, has not given directive and no warrant of execution has been signed” to that effect.

The issue of condemned convicts across the country had been a heated discourse lately following the ratification of the death of two of them by the Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole.

Despite strong representations against the governor's action mostly from human rights organisations abroad, President Goodluck Jonathan, upped the debate in his Father's Day message last June when he told state Governors to stop abdicating their constitutional responsibility by not signing death warrants of condemned criminals.